Kilcullen in 2011: Pt 2

(Part 1 of this lookback was posted earlier.)

In July, Kilcullen was offered the chance of being the location for a sculpture originally designed for the M9 by Eamonn O'Doherty. The matter raised a certain amount of division, eventually involving a public meeting and much negotiation. The matter was complicated by the death of the artist, but is currently in train.

Chrissie Byrne from the St Bridget’s Pitch & Putt Club in Kilcullen brought home the Elvery Cup after her win in the National Ladies Senior Pitch and Putt Championship. Chrissie has become only the 10th lady player in the history of the game to become multiple winner of the National Strokeplay Championship while bringing her personal tally of Senior All Irelands to five.

The month closed with a small family celebration in Fallons, when Fr Matt Kelly celebrated his 60th year as a priest and his 85th birthday. Aptly, the dining room in Fallons was originally the tailor's shop run by Fr Matt's father Jim decades ago.

August means Heritage Week, and the focus of Kilcullen Heritage Group's input this year was a talk by Collette Jordan on New Abbe—'New Abbey and its Ever Changing Times'—where there was a monastic settlement from at least 1486.

A potentially tragic incident happened during resurfacing of the hill of Kilcullen when a paver ran out of control and damaged two cars and the corner of a building before being brought under control. Kilcullen was closed for a number of hours and cars had to be detoured around the town.

An unusual new business was set up by Kilcullen-based Karen Rooney, The Lonely Teacup, which evolved from her own keen interest in old things. From her online boutique she is offering vintage china home accessories and event styling pieces.

The second Kilcullen River Festival was organised by a group of local business people, and was again a serious success, attracting thousands of people from mid-Kildare and beyond to the attractions and music in the Market Square on the Sunday afternoon. Once again the inter-pub Raft Race was (very wet) a highlight of the day.

Local auctioneer John Dowling and two friends scaled new heights when they climbed to the top of Mt Blanc, as part of a programme to highlight the work of the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team, of which John has been a member for several years.

In September, regulars of Bardons pub presented a cheque for €4,000 to the Barretsown holiday camp for very ill children. It represented donations from customers, staff and supporters of Bardons in a special fundraising event. It will make a ’huge’ difference in the lives of the many courageous ill children and teens who go through the camp gates every year, said Emma Conroy from the facility founded by the late Paul Newman.

Popular principal of Brannoxtown NS Esther Reddy said farewell to the school, to take up a new position as principal of St Brigid's NS, Ballysax. It was a special move, as she had started her teaching career in the forerunner school that is now St Brigid's.

In October, the death of Margaret 'Peggy' Keogh at the age of 98 marked the end of a musical era. Peggy was one of the founder members of the Gallowglass Ceili Band and mother of three generations of musicians.

The latest in a series of art exhibitions in The Good Food Gallery featured the work of local restaurateur Brian Fallon, whose ability with a brush and paints surprised quite a number of local people.

The young actors of Kilcullen Youth Theatre presented a fastmoving and intriguing take on Dickens' Tiny Tim and Oliver Twist, in 'Run Like the Dickens'. Their performance showed that the future of drama in Kilcullen is sound. In the later Community Awards Night, producers Eilis Phillips and Siobhan Phillips were given recognition for their work through Kilcullen Drama Group with the Teen Theatre group.

In November, Kilcullen mourned the passing of one of its great older ladies, Mrs Kathleen Moran. Kathleen was 95.

In fundraising, the Movember Shave-off in The Hideout raised €1,000 for the Irish Cancer Society, and the annual 'Miscellany on SUnday' at the Bermingham home in Mooretown raised €3,000 for the Michael Garry House hostel for the homeless in Newbridge.

The senior actor cohort of Kilcullen Drama Group presented Alan Ayckbourn's 'If I Were You', which took a wry and sometimes searing look at the gender gap as seen through the antics of a family.

November also saw the completion of the 'Sacred Space' project in Cross & Passion College, a new and unique place for reflection and spiritual reinvigoration. Open to anyone in the community, it is seen as a bridge between the academic and the outside life of the village.

In December, the season of goodwill started early with a fundraiser for the Maintain Hope Charity, when local enterprises teamed up with volunteer Esther Reddy and her friends for a Coffee Morning & Craft Fair, which raised €1,000 for the cause. A subsequent 'Music and Musings' evening in the restored medieval St Mary's Church on the Castlemartin Stud grounds was equally successful.

Not so happy were the residents of Cnoc na Greine Woods, who found they had a planning application for a waste recycling and car dismantling facility right outside their back gardens. They got together to oppose it, and were backed by Kilcullen Community Action.

In the meantime, Christmas came around once again and intervened for a short time, so that story will probably begin our lookback this time next year.


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